Blurbs are the endorsements put on books, usually newly published ones, to help a book gain some sort of notice. They are usually contributed by friends of the author, or solicited by the publisher from recognizable names in the field. The question of blurbs by Evangeline Walton came up during my conversation at the youtube channel MaskedManta released on Tuesday September 29th. (You can view it here.) This inspired me to compile all the known instances where Evangeline Walton contributed a blurb to a book. So far, I have four in total. If anyone knows of any more, please post about them in the comments.
Walton gained acclaim in the fantasy genre in the early 1970s with the publication of her Mabinogion books in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, and she began to attend conventions and attracted wider notice. The first book that has a blurb by Walton is The Lost Prince by Paul Edwin Zimmer. Walton certainly knew Zimmer's sister, Marion Zimmer Bradley, in the 1970s, and probably also knew Zimmer himself from conventions, like the Mythopoeic Society ones in California.
Walton published the first of her Theseus novels, The Sword Is Forged, with Timescape Books, in 1983. David G. Hartwell was her editor, and it seems that he was responsible for soliciting from her the other three blurbs (though the one for Sword at Sunset might have been solicited by Betty Ballantine, Walton's editor at Ballantine Books from 1970-1974). Hartwell left Timescape Books soon after Walton's book was published, and in 1985 he joined Arbor House, which later merged with Avon/Morrow to be called Avonova. Hartwell also worked as a freelance consulting editor for Tor Books, from 1983 to 1995, when he became a full-time senior editor at Tor.
Here are the four books, listed chronologically.
Paul Edwin Zimmer
The Lost Prince (Playboy Paperbacks, September 1982) The Dark Border Vol. 1
Front cover: “A thrilling and tremendous adventure” Evangeline Walton
Sword at Sunset (Tor, [March] 1987)
[page ii]: “Exquisitely written—the real flesh and blood Arthur. Sutcliff gives his life new meaning and purpose.” Evangeline Walton
Sword at Sunset was first published in 1963. This new reprint was described as "part of the celebration of their upcoming fiftieth anniversary in publishing, Ian and Betty Ballantine will be sponsoring the release of many of their all-time favorite books and re-publishing authors of outstanding stature." This sounds like it would have been a very attractive series, but Sword at Sunset is the only known entry. Does anyone else know of any further titles so marketed? It could have been a wonderful successor to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which was edited by Betty Ballantine.
Guy Gavriel Kay
The Summer Tree (Arbor House, 1985)
Rear dust-wrapper flap: “Powerful and fascinating, different even for fantasy, Guy Gavriel Kay combines intense terror with passages of poignant loveliness. The Summer Tree is a fast moving story that still has time for subtlety and originality.” Evangeline Walton
Rear dust-wrapper of The Wandering Fire (Arbor House, 1986), advertises The Summer Tree and includes more of Walton’s blurb (with slight changes):
“Intense terror yet also passages of poignant loveliness . . . there is a kind of touching glory when the moon gives birth and the boy finds what must bring him manhood. Yet if anybody wants monsters here they are. A fast-moving story that still has time for subtlety and originality.” Evangeline Walton, author of The Island of the Mighty
Paul Hazel
The Wealdwife’s Tale (Avonova, March 1994) mass-market paperback
[p. i] “A grim and powerful re-rendering of the pretty, old fairy tale, yet it has a moving beauty of its own” Evangeline Walton, author of The Children of Llyr
The first edition (Avonova /William Morrow, March 1993) does not have any blurbs.
This blurb is one of the final publications by Walton before her death in 1996.
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